Worth The Wait
by skygirl55
Summary: Post 5x01 "After the Storm" One-shot.


**This takes place immediately after 5x01 "After the Storm" (when Beckett grabs Castle in the elevator)**

**It is a companion to my story "The Beginning of Something Good", though you don't have to read that one first to read this one.**

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"I still can't believe you did that—at the precinct!" Castle shook his head in mixed awe and befuddlement as he followed her into her apartment and shut the door behind him. He shrugged off his leather jacket and tossed it onto the chair by the door. As she pulled off her jacket, he took it from her and repeated his action. "People could have seen!"

She smiled back at him over her shoulder. "No one did."

"But still!"

She turned to face him as they entered the kitchen, a smirk growing across her face. "What's the matter Castle? Didn't you like it?"

His reply was instant. "No! It was great!" He sauntered over to her wrapped his right arm around her waist and pulled her hips against his, thinking she could grab him any time—any place—she wanted. "The more I learn about you, Katharine Beckett, the more I like."

She pressed a quick kiss onto his lips. "Glad to hear it." Then she slid from his embrace and walked around to the other side of the island in her kitchen.

"So," he began, resting his forearms on the island. "Dinner?"

She pulled two water bottles from the fridge and set them on the counter before looking at him. "Oh I'm not sure I've worked up an appetite yet."

Castle could feel the blood begin to flow southward. With a gruff voice he said, "Then I guess I'll have to fix that."

"Yeah?" Her smile grew impossibly wider as she walked over to him and looped her arms around his neck. He pulled her in and backed her against the counter, placing his knee between hers as he pinned her into place. She brushed her lips against his cheek the then moved her mouth just below his ear and asked, "You have some good ideas?"

The feel of her hot breath against his earlobe made him growl involuntarily. "I have _great_ ide—oh!" He pulled away from her, his voice an octave higher. "Idea!"

She raised a brow at him. "For Nikki and Rook?"

He turned his head to the side and gazed at her, his fingertips gently stroking the fabric of her shirt against her waistline. "What made you ask about them?"

"Your idea isn't for them?"

"No, it's for us."

"Oh," she said momentarily dipping her gaze towards the floor. She shrugged casually. "I dunno. I guess I always figured you pictured us when you wrote about them." She had never let herself consciously think about it, but deep down somewhere in her she had suspected ever since the introduction of Detective Heat and her lover, the writer, their actions had emanated from Castle's desire to be with her.

He considered this for a moment, skimming his hands beneath her top, which caused her to breathe in sharply. "Well, I guess I did subconsciously, but I never actually thought about you and I when I wrote about them having sex. I _did_ think about you and I whenever I wou-"

She held up her hand to his lips, silencing him. "For the sake of the future of this relationship, you probably shouldn't finish that thought." She slid out of his arms, took two steps away, stopped, and looked back at him over her shoulder. "But, uh, me too."

Castle's jaw dropped several inches. He heard her chuckle lightly before she strutted into her bedroom, the swish of her hips begging him to follow. They made a convincing argument, so he did.

He entered the room, but remained by the doorway as he watched her. She stood a foot away with one hand resting on the edge of the dresser, balancing herself as she unzipped one boot, let it drop to the floor, and then repeated the pattern with the other. His eyes turned towards her bed, where they'd both been the night before, though all they'd done was sleep, so this would be their first return to the passion they'd found in his bed on that rain-soaked evening.

"Something wrong, Castle?"

Her voice roused him from the memories of their first night together. Looking over to her, he saw her perfect face watching him. The same eyes he'd gazed into across a desk for four years. The same smile that warmed his heart every morning as he handed her coffee. "Nope; nothing's wrong."

"Good." She approached and stood in front on him. In just her socks, their three-and-a-half inch height difference made it necessary for her to rise up on her toes slightly to bring their lips together. She grabbed the open shirt collar of his cobalt blue button down and dragged him with her to the bed, where she sat, pulling him down with her.

By the time he stretched out beside her, his shirt was completely unbuttoned. He tossed the item off the end of the bed and used their momentary lack of lip contact to pull her black shirt up and over her head. He moved his kisses down her jaw, across the valley of her throat and down her sternum. After placing a lingering kiss on her scar, he unhooked her bra with one skillful flick of his wrist and pulled the cup away from her right breast, immediately capturing the nipple with his lips.

She breathily moaned out his name, skimming her fingertips through his hair as his lips did indescribable things to her flesh. She rolled her hips against his in a futile attempt to lessen the pressure building between her thighs. How was it even possible, she wondered, that with her other lovers it took a significant amount of foreplay before she was this ready, but with him she was practically there before they'd even started.

Every time she rolled her hips and the button of her jeans brushed against the front of his pants Castle's fists involuntarily clenched. God, she was going to be the death of him, he knew that, but what a way to go. In both an effort to please her and suppress his own agony, Castle moved his lips down her abdomen, pausing momentarily to run his tongue along the edge of her bellybutton, and to the top of her jeans. Her rested his lips just to the right of her hipbone as he popped the button and dragged the zipper down. She hoisted her hips up and he snuck his index fingers beneath the waistband, making sure to grab the top edges of her panties so he could remove the items simultaneously.

Now, with her completely exposed to him, he took a moment to drink in her beauty. Her hair already a mess against the pillow. Her eyelids heavy, lips puffy and damp from their kisses. Her breasts rising and falling steadily with each breath she took. And finally her hips open and welcoming him.

He lay down between her thighs, looping his arms underneath them to pull her closer, hold her tighter. He traced feather light kisses across each of her thighs, each kiss getting closer to her center. When he dragged his tongue across her slit she moaned and arched her back, forcing her hips closer to his mouth. He buried himself in her swirling, sucking, licking, and dragging his teeth across her tender flesh until she cried out and her whole body began to tremble.

Castle traced his lips back up her body, over her stomach, through the valley of her breasts and across her chest, still rolling with each heavy breath, before his lips reached her throat. He propped himself up on his forearms and smiled down at her. "I love making you come; it's my new favorite thing."

She let out a breathy chuckle and brought one hand up to caress his cheek. "Hey, me too." She gazed at him above her for several moments before confessing, "It's, uh, it's kinda been a while for me."

His brow wrinkled. "What do you mean? It's been like forty-eight hours—not even." His eyes darted to the alarm clock on her bedside table and he did some quick subtraction. "It's been like thirty nine and seventeen minutes."

She shook her head and brushed her fingertips over her forehead. "No, I mean before that. Before two nights ago."

He lowered himself onto his hip so that he was beside her. "How long?"

Her eyes dipped down for a moment before she looked up at him. "Since before I was shot."

"Kate," he sighed. Though he was initially surprised at her confession that it had been almost a year since she'd had sex, as he looked into her eyes he understood. She had spent all that time trying to heal herself, to bring down those walls. For him. To be with him. Because he was the only one she wanted to be with.

Suddenly, he felt his face growing hot with guilt over his tryst with the flight attendant shortly after finding out she knew about his "I love you" confession. Had it not been for that affair (which, he later admitted to himself, he'd done simply because he was angry), he would have been in the exact same position, because he'd been waiting for her.

Noting his eyes were clouded over in thought, Kate leaned over and kissed his cheek to rouse him from his trance. When his eyes focused back on her she smiled at him. "It was worth the wait."

Renewed fire burned his eyes as he pushed himself off the bed and swiftly undid the button and zipper on his pants. He pushed them and his boxer shorts to the floor before kneeling down on the mattress. He had every intention of making it _more_ than worth the wait.

Once again, Castle settled between her legs. He used his hands on the underside of her hips to drag her toward him and tilt her pelvis up. She let out a slight gasp at the swiftness of his actions. Her eyes watched him curiously as he lowered himself down on her, balancing his weight between his elbows and his knees. For just a moment, he hovered, and then, in one steady stroke, he was inside her.

Kate's head lolled back against the pillow as she rolled her hips against his. Their time together two nights earlier had, in fact, been a dream—a dream come true. The feeling of him inside of her really was indescribable.

Their hips moved together as the friction began to build once more. Their rhythm was even, steady, but their breath came in quick uneven pants and groans. Castle used one hand to angle her hips higher and understood. She hoisted up her legs and wrapped them around his back, anchoring herself with her knees, allowing him to slip even deeper.

"Oh god, Rick," she mewed as he plunged into her, hitting that perfect spot again and again. "Don't stop," she breathed, gripping his biceps. "Don't stop."

Castle could feel the pressure building, twisting in his gut; it was almost blinding him, but managed to hold on. He focused on her pleas for him to go faster and the pure pleasure on her face; the pleasure he was giving her. Finally, when he felt her spasm around him, he let go, barely able to support his weight as his whole body trembled.

He rolled onto his side, taking her with him, their bodies still joined together. She collapsed against his chest and gazed up at him. Her hair was matted to her forehead in places, her skin dewy, and her expression one of pure bliss. He smiled at her before shutting his eyes and sinking back into the pillow.

After a few minutes of regulating her breathing, Kate slid up his chest and pressed a few kisses against his jaw. "Well," she sighed. "I guess I could eat something now."

"Eat? I can't even move," he replied. Not that he was complaining, of course.

"Really? Not even to watch me cook in nothing but an apron?"

He cracked one eye open to see her smiling deliciously at him. "Well," he rationalized, "I guess a little food might give me enough energy to do that again in a few hours."

She pressed a quick kiss to his lips before sliding off him, crawling out of bed, and disappearing from the bedroom. He lay still for a moment, missing the feeling of her weight over top of him. As he began to wonder what it would take for her to bring him the food right there, she appeared in the doorway wearing, as promised, nothing but a pastel green and blue striped apron. "You comin' Castle?"

He sat up and smiled at her. "Absolutely."


End file.
